The opening scene of the sacred Indian text, the Bhagavad Gita, reads, "On the field of dharma, on the field of Kuru, assembled together desiring to fight, Were my armies and indeed those of the sons of Pandu--how did they act, O Sanjaya?"As anyone knows who has read the Gita, the rest of the Gita summarizes a conversation between Arjuna, the military leader of the Pandavas, and Krishna. The content of the conversation revolves around Arjuna's dilemma. If he fights he will kill people he knows and loves, and if he doesn't fight he will betray his post in life as a warrior and protector of his people (and people will be harmed that way too!). Taken metaphorically, the great wisdom text begins with the same dilemma that we each find ourselves in throughout life.

* If I walk a spiritual path I will be potentially "harming" my relationship to the world I love. The people, activities, desires, I have in this world I will have to go to war with, inside and out, and that may alienate me from others or from myself. It will be difficult.

* On the other hand, not fighting and staying in the world would deny the spiritual call that I feel, the spiritual call that is somehow natural to who I am and what truly defines my worth and destiny. This would also do me harm.

* How should I act?!

The opposition between Mars and Saturn brings to mind the difficult opening of the Gita and the "battleground" we each find ourselves in as spiritual beings living in a material world, or vice versa. Mars/Saturn brings to the forefront of our consciousness the constraints of material duties, bills, ambitions, unavoidable confrontations, and ongoing struggles or obstacles. But it also brings to the forefront of our consciousness the need to fundamentally change our approach to how we meet these challenges. Mars/Saturn is about the need to approach life's challenges using different skills, different tools, different beliefs, and a deeper overall awareness of how we should "act" in order to find spiritual happiness within the constraints and confines of life's inevitable battles.

At the heart of Krishna's instructions for Arjuna there is one theme repeating (at least in this student's view) and that is the theme of the love of God and the way that the love of God seats itself in us and becomes a force that is constantly refining, purifying, and guiding our actions "in the world."

It's my deepest belief that astrology also helps us to recognize the divine within the midst of all the archetypal "scenarios," the battle-fields of human experience. In this way astrology is constantly blessing, and sanctifying, or even redeeming all the different challenges we face in life while also reminding us to act from a place of love.

So whatever Mars/Saturn "challenges" we might be facing right now, are we also able to see within the challenge the call to refine how and why we act however we do? Are we allowing the opposition of these two forces to refine and shape our actions in the world?​Prayer: Teach us how to act.

* The 28th hexagram of the I Ching is called "Critical Mass," and it's a hexagram I've received in my morning astro-meditations several times in the past few weeks while focusing on the Mars/Saturn transit.​* The hexagram generally points to a situation where the burdens, pressures, and creative tensions of a situation are moving toward but have not yet reached a breakthrough moment. The breakthrough can be a breakdown, a collapse, a meltdown, an explosion, or a moment of backlash, reaction, and outrage, or it can represent the departure from an old form and the establishment of a new foundation, a moment of clarity, innovation, or liberation.

* Hexagram 28 can also point to a crisis of faith, of patience, or a trying period where the pressures simply won't move or subside or yield or give way to something new, try as we might to push something.

* Hexagram 28 can also point toward the inevitable failure of something...something that is simply not sustainable any longer, whose time is up, and try as we may to avoid or deny it, there is no longer any way to preserve the past.

* Hexagram 28 can also refer to a time to make an important and no longer avoidable decision.

* The 1st line of hexagram 28 depicts someone carefully placing padding below themselves in case of a fall, or it depicts someone carefully creating a comfortable position from which to sit and meditate during the midst of all the tensions above. The teaching of the first line is to slowly, carefully, prepare the foundation of the future without caving disastrously to the pressures currently around you.

* Hexagram 28 changes into Hexagram 5, called "Calculated Waiting." Calculated waiting depicts the gathering of clouds and all the signs of rain to come, but no rain yet. In such times all we can do is to take care of the small things. In times of being held back, in times of extraordinary pressure, all we can really do is recognize the call to develop deeper patience, non-action, and also strategic preparation...focusing on the small things and not trying to prematurely draw on the energy of something whose time hasn't arrived yet.

Prayer: May the pressures of the moment build within us the staying power of peace.

* A disciplined, careful, strategic, approach* A time of waiting, patiently, * non-action with intentPay attention:* To the voice that wants/desires* To the voice that restrains or holds back* To the voice that denies or hides* To the voice that demands and doesn't respect boundaries

Be mindful of:

* The temptation to fight or confront or act rashly* The impatience or lack of tact or diplomacy that leads to conflict* A demanding spirit that wants to force opponents into a display of anger or violence

If we don't allow opposition into our lives, if we make no room for its voice and presence, then it will eventually grow stronger and force us into a corner...our denial of conflict, of pain, of death and mortality, of darkness, does not make us optimistic or positive, it makes us rigid and eventually brittle to the point of breaking too easily.​Flexibility is a mind-set we cultivate over time, by allowing for constraints to be loosened through deep acceptance, and the deeper the acceptance the more freedom opens up within the perceived constraint. When we fight against constraints, when we resist times of struggle, we open ourselves up to much greater danger. So be extra careful this weekend to live with the limits and to open your mind, heart, and body to the contraction of the moment. What space can you find in this Mars/Saturn dynamic?

Prayer: Teach us to resist the temptation of violent displays, of aggression, of impatience, and instead place within our hearts the quiet prayer of persistence on the noble path.

This New Moon in Gemini beholds Saturn by opposition, while Mars moves into a degree-based opposition with Saturn. Let's imagine the image of the wind working slowly to shape massive pieces of land, like mountains.

* The mountain (Saturn) is an image of a long-standing principle, or the crystallization of an idea, or the solidification of our understanding of something.

* The mountain (Saturn) is an image of non-action, of an obstacle, of a "no," of a difficulty, or stagnation, or resistance to our desires.

* The mountain (Saturn) is an image of a long-standing pattern, the accumulation of karma, the consequences of numerous webs of interrelated actions.

* The mountain (Saturn) is an image of responsibilities, duties, those things that weigh on us heavily, the sobriety or seriousness of a situation, insistence upon one way and one way only.

* The mountain (Saturn) is the process of addition by subtraction, where we gain tremendous insight, clarity, power, or healing by what is taken away, by what the "no" gives as it also takes away.

Now...imagine the wind blowing steadily, constantly, coming and going, moving here and there, directly, but indirectly, fiercely but in waves, over long, long periods of time. While the wind may seem innocuous, it's long-term effect, focusing as it must on the obstacles it encounters, is to shape and shift what it encounters, gradually, subtly, and constantly. The New Moon in Gemini, with Mars in Gemini all opposed to Saturn is the picture of the slow shaping and reforming of principles, obstacles, hardened attitudes, by the joyful, gentle, and constant influence of the open mind. The open mind may sound like an image of something static and receptive, like an empty bowl, but the truth is that the open-mindedness of Gemini is more like the constant, loyal, gentle, joyful, influence of free mindedness over long periods of time. The wind can't help but be free here and direct there, fiercely blowing and then gently frolicking. Though the mountain appears unmoved and unyielding, over long periods of time mountains are worn down, eroded, and their appearances changed by this constant movement of the variable winds.

The Fruits of this New Moon...

* Allows our mind to penetrate to the core of a conviction we didn't know we had

* By careful, concentrated but gentle contemplation our understanding of something arrives at a place of crystalization and maturity...we are open minded but we have discovered a long-lasting principle, cause, or truth

* Through gentle submission, acceptance, and joyful open-mindedness we find that a problem, obstacle, or opposition, yields

* We release our insistence upon something and allow ourselves to be shaped by someone or something else

* Many parts start coming together into a sense of completion or unity

* A complex issue is comprehended...

* Non-action and trust allows us to see blockages as a force slowly working on us, leading us to something...the blockage becomes an image of the call to contemplate rather than act, of the productivity of understanding something before acting.

We often talk about Gemin in relationship to Mercury and the archetype of the messenger. We immediately call to mind images of speed, shiftiness, wit, and the lightning fast download speeds of cables and wires. What we so frequently forget is that the messenger speaks like the constancy and variability of the wind over a landscape across eons. When we learn to hear the messenger's voice in the long-game, when we can see the fingerprints of the wind over long seasons of our lives, the voice of the messenger becomes just as varied as the voice of the wind, and our relationship to the mind becomes steadier.​Prayer: Show us the messenger, opening our eyes and minds and hearts, speaking to us gently and constantly, here and there, for so many long seasons. Teach us to hear your patient, gentle, and persistent callings.

The darkening Moon is in Aries today, moving toward Mars, Saturn, and Uranus and activating the dynamics between these planets today.

An I Ching Meditation to further illuminate the Mars/Saturn opposition and simultaneous Saturn/Uranus trine:

* The 56th hexagram of the I Ching is called "The Wanderer," and it depicts a time of transition, traveling, and uncertainty

* The 56th hexagram also denotes times after an abundance of activity, or gain...after these times there is an immediate period of weakness, uncertainty, danger, or even a "lull"

* Hexagram 56 is also about the open space we find ourselves in after a tradition, structure, or familiar set of rules, habits, or patterns, have collapsed or are in the process of falling apart

* The instructions of Hexagram 56 include modesty, patience, and humility. The traveler doesn't push his or her own agenda, the traveler is cautious, the traveler is frugal, the traveler conserves his or her energy, the traveler doesn't take things for granted, the traveler doesn't assume anything will be there to support him or her, the traveler knows that waiting and watching, listening and praying, will bring good fortune during times of uncertainty, during times of transition and wandering.

* The 56th hexagram also talks about how difficult it is to make progress or to pursue our ambitions when we are temporarily in the position of being the stranger in the strange land, or when we find ourselves in a rather uncertain moment or period of time. However, the I Ching also reminds us that these periods are natural, regularly occurring, and usually following periods of great accumulation, development, activity, or gain.

* A simple example. Let's say you start your day with a simple cup of tea or coffee. It helps activate and awaken you, and pretty soon you feel that surge of energy and productivity and off you go! By noon you've accomplished a lot, but not nearly as much as you told yourself you would by the end of the day. At just this moment you become the wanderer. Your caffeine buzz is wearing off, and suddenly you're faced with the overwhelming temptation to drink your second cup. You tell yourself that you could easily get even more done if you just reup your caffeine meter. But what would really happen? You might get more done while also become more agitated, more worried, more critical of the work you're doing, you might lose control and eat all of the cake in the office, collapse at your desk from a sugar high, force yourself to wake up through a third cup of coffee, and then go home where you have an emotional meltdown with your spouse and kids, and by the end of the day you're thinking, "I'm a mess. My life is a mess."

* The traveler is the one who recognizes the come down and says, "I recognize this is the time for modesty, for awareness, for stillness, for patience, for avoiding rash or hasty decisions, for being frugal, and for being content with the small gains I've made so far and whatever else may come to me at this time." So, you avoid the temptation to take your second cup of coffee.

* The 56th hexagram depicts wild fires on the mountain and says, "Catastrophic to man, a passing annoyance to the mountain." In the I Ching the Mountain is also an image of meditation, stillness, and the power of non-action. During times of transition, when things slow down, the addiction to action tempts us to press forward when and where there is no support. These waves of action, from the perspective of the mountain, are a fleeting thing, not worth getting embroiled in (taking the metaphorical second cup of coffee).

* The second line of the 56th hexagram talks about finding an inn to stay at, along with a faithful servant.

* When we recognize times of anti-climax within a larger transformational process, and when we meet the moment with modesty, frugality, economy, simplicity, and patience, staying focused on the slow, steady, path of the noble work we are doing, the Universe provides us with temporary lodging, comfort, and support, and whatever lull we might find ourselves in also acts to provide us with whatever we might need in order to keep going. However, this support doesn't come to those who push, push, push, and grab for that second cup of coffee.

* The 56th hexagram I received this morning for these transits changes into Hexagram 1, the creative.

* Simply put, the path described above leads back to an expanded time of enormous creativity, productivity, and newness.

* Large transformations occur just as much in non-action, waiting, and the lulls, as much as they do in the appearance of dynamic opportunities, events, emotions, and enthusiasm. However, they move in a never-ending cycle with one another.

* The real liberation lies in recognizing the entirety of the cycle as we are in the midst of it. The traveler possesses nothing, has no home, needs nothing, and by doing so finds comfort and companionship, support and ease on the never-ending road.

* Often enough, when we pass on that second cup of coffee, sometime later in the afternoon we experience a tremendous and natural surge of energy, but it comes from the heart, and guides us and supports us in ways that our noontime second cup of coffee "to-do list," could not have planned for.

This I Ching reading wonderfully highlights the moment we find ourselves in. A moment of anticlimax within a revolutionary season, a moment where things are "relatively" slowed down, and yet nothing is as it was and we sense there are more big changes coming.​Prayer: Teach us to be like the wise traveler, and show us the way to your comforting inns.

* Last quarter Moons are times of completing, integrating, releasing, and the beginning of the end of things as we know them.* The love and admiration or animosity and tension between teachers and students, leaders and emissaries, bosses and employees, higher ups and lower downs, etc. (Venus opp Jupiter with Jupiter in Venus' sign).* The need to recognize, value, and lift up that which we rely upon for support (Venus opp Jupiter with Jupiter in Venus sign).* The increasing need or desire to reduce, focus, become more serious (Mars opp Satun)>* A time of austerity (Mars/Saturn)* A time of limitations, decline, hard work (Mars/Saturn)* The natural expiration date (Mars/Saturn opp)* An encounter with mortality (Mars/Saturn)* Finding the immortal within the limits of the world (Mars/Saturn)* Receiving good news, a windfall, a spirit of enthusiasm (Venus/Jupiter)* The ruler is subject to the scrutiny of his subjects/servants/staff (Jupiter in Venus sign while Venus opposes Jupiter)* The messengers or emissaries of Justice and their ability or inability to play by the rules (Jupiter in Libra with Venus opposed)* Crime and punishment along with mercy and pardon (Mars/Saturn in the midst of Venus/Jupiter)* We get what we give, we lose what we withhold (Venus/Jupiter opp with Mars/Saturn opp)​Prayer: Teach us what to ask for so that we might receive what we actually need.

As Mars approaches its opposition to Saturn, and Saturn approaches its opposition to Mars...

Today we invite the word "denial" into our hearts and minds.

* The etymology of the word "denial," brings up the image of turning away from, saying no, refusing, or repudiating.

* The psychological use of the word "denial" is related to the willful but often unconscious turning away of "painful or embarrassing feelings or thoughts."

* Consider that we covet those things that harm us, those ideas of ourselves that are painful and embarrassing. We desire them, we defend them, and yet we deny their existence at the very moment that we keep them in the private pain of our hearts. You cannot have my pain. You will not see it. I will not see it. It's mine. The spirit of denial is a secret desire to have what harms and to harm whatever attempts to take away "my" pain.

* How can we deny the world and yet say that we love it? How can we be in the world if the desires of the world so often deny us of freedom and love? You cannot have my pain. You cannot have my world. It's mine. You will not see it. I will not see it. It's mine.

* Consider that we also desire all manner of things that will harm us and that the spirit of denial comes to turn us away from the objects of our desire. Each day for love to be real, in some way we must turn away from the world, and yet we cannot deny the world as though we are embarrassed of it or secretly coveting it, for the world is not embarrassed of us. We know this because it desires us fully, without remorse or shame, every waking moment.

* Denial often convinces us that we must turn away from self-care, from love toward others, from affection, and from tenderness, because we do not have time for it, or because the world will not wait for it. Denial convinces us that responsibility is more responsible than love. But love teaches us that responsibility grows out of love. From Love's perspective, denial is a protective spirit that turns us away from those covetous and false responsibilities and back to the only everlasting responsibility, the force that is responsible for everything and everyone, the force that denies nothing while bringing everything that has turned away from it back to itself: love.

* Why do we meditate or pray or get onto our mats or whatever we might do to center ourselves? Is it really to deny the world? Or is it to find that place where we love the world without possessing it, where we allow the world to love us without being consumed by it?

* Why should it take discipline, focus, hard work, or spiritual sweat to love the world and be loved by it in return? Just as children learn that they are not in possession of their parents or parents of their children, for love to grow it must be free.

* While we are in a physical world, a world where forms come into being and pass out of being, freedom and love have to be cultivated physically as well as mentally because we are physical and mental creatures. If we don't work the muscles of freedom and love, they will atrophy and we will come to hold or be in the hold of something that denies us of love.

* Why should there be any constraints or lack of freedom, ever? With constraints and separation come the sacred gap across which intimacy and love are shared. A shift of consciousness is required for constraints to be understood as the call of love.

I am not here to be an austere denier of the world. I am not here to be consumed by the world. I am here to sing the call and response hymns of love.​Prayer: Dear Saturn and Mars. Show us where we are living in denial and sing us back to the gentle discipline of loving kindness.

As Venus closes in on an opposition to Jupiter (see yesterday's horoscope), Mars is also closing in on an opposition to Saturn.

Let's call on the I Ching to reflect on the applying Mars/Saturn dynamic.

* The 2nd hexagram of the I Ching is called "The Receptive." It is the only hexagram of the I Ching to feature all yin lines. It is the quintessential "yin" of the 64 hexagram sequence, and it follows after the 1st hexagram of the 64, called "The Creative," which is made up of all yang lines.

* The 2nd hexagram of the I Ching is the archetype most deeply related to non-action, contemplation, reflection, receptivity, surrender, and acceptance.

* When the 2nd hexagram arrives in a reading it is often a time where in order to achieve whatever we're hoping to achieve, or understand whatever we're hoping to understand we are told to stop doing and start listening, stop fighting and start accepting, to study what thwarts us rather than trying to ram or bulldoze through it.

* When Mars, a fiery hot planet of desire, action, and impulse, meets up with Saturn, the planet of restriction, prohibition, denial, and negation, it's as though what we want and what we desire aren't happening, or they aren't happening quickly, or we are being directly thwarted or frustrated. At the same time, read enough astrology and you'll see that astrologers also frequently spend time talking about Mars/Saturn in relationship to austerity, discipline, focused restraint, productive limitations, and so forth. How do we get such variety?

* The answer has to do with the consciousness that we bring to the opposition, as well as the "karma," for lack of a better word. We are each conditioned by a variety of forces in life, much of which mask themselves as personal choices and "free-will." Mars and Saturn oppositions often provide us with opportunities to get in touch with just how conditioned and restrained by these patterns we are. Mars/Saturn oppositions bring us up against the limits of our power, or the limits of our ability to do or act or think against our own habitual nature, and when we meet these limitations we are either naturally led into a reflective posture, or we fight against the limitations and often the fruitlessness of the fight leads us into a kind of frustrated submission later on.

* Hexagram 2 is a way of saying, "When you see this transit coming, start to enter this position of receptivity naturally, rather than being forced into it later when it's more painful."

* Hexagram 2 is the admonition to try on for size the idea that you are not in control and that your free-will isn't going to save the day in every situation.

* Hexagram 2 also suggests that we try on for size the idea that deliberate self-restraint, along with the intentional act of being reflective and receptive, will bring liberation more quickly than any great heroic efforts.

* For example, let's say that your house is in a total mess, money is tight, and you are under the pressure of deadlines at work. Mars/Saturn is like that voice that says, "WILL it all to be done, right NOW!" And so you try to hero through all of it but in the process of all of this work, while cleaning your house you pull a muscle and curse out your spouse, you half-ass your work assignment, disappoint your boss, and end up doing a little retail therapy that puts you farther into debt.

* If you followed hexagram 2's advice you might have sat down in the midst of the mess, found one room in your house, and worked on a detailed cleaning of that room, and those shelves, each day in whatever spare time you had. You wouldn't have gone nuts doing it, but rather focused on the small things and done the work with devotion, being content to sit in the mess and let it resolve itself slowly. At work you would have followed the same approach, each day focusing and doing whatever you could to meet your deadline while doing quality work, without rushing, without slamming energy drinks, and with your budget you would have made a daily plan and focused on frugality each day and not let yourself impulse shop to deal with the stress from the earlier energy drink. Suddenly, before you know it, while staying small, learning to be content within the constraints of the times, your boss praises your work and assigns you a small team of helpers, your tax refund check comes in the mail unexpectedly, and little by little your house is clean.

* It's the same Mars/Saturn transit...

* The first line of the 2nd hexagram reads, "Treading on hoarfrost, surely turns to ice."

* This line suggests two different patterns that may take root in the midst of this Mars/Saturn dynamic. On the one hand, the constraints we face during the Mars/Saturn dynamic may mark the beginning of the end of something. When we encounter a roadblock, often the roadblock is simply the first "no" we receive that really indicates a much larger "no" to come, just as the first sign of frost indicates that the deep/hard ice of Winter (which is the ending/death time of year) isn't far off. On the other hand, the formation of hard-ice at the foundation of something is also an image of clarification and crystalization. Understanding our limits, our ignorance, and our shortcomings, we have nowhere to go but deeper into the path of wisdom. Although the path of wisdom often requires a "hard/cold" encounter with the unconscious, or our ignorance, this encounter will provide a solid foundation and a kind of crystal clear and icy cold detachment from the fires of our passions, especially those that keep us ensnared in patterns of resistance and reaction.

* When the 2nd line of the 2nd hexagram changes it shifts Hexgram 2 into Hexagram 24, called "Return." This hexagram depicts a turning back or returning to where we came from. It is both a sign of prohibition, "Sorry the flight has been cancelled, return again tomorrow," as well as the liminal space we find ourselves in for the 24 hours before we return to the airport. Returning was depicted by the Taoist sages of the I Ching as the natural part of the year where we are forced home and into a reflective or passive position prior to moving out again. Although Return is often associated with circumstances that deny (for example, the hexagram talks about gates being closed at the winter solstice), the hexagram was also auspicious because it was believed that these times provide us with good luck in new endeavors. The only thing necessary is that when times of negation and return occur that we accept them gladly and with detachment.

Mars/Saturn...a time of restraint and constraint, a time of prohibition but also the solidification of wisdom. We'll come back to this dynamic again in the coming days!​Prayer: Teach us to find the secret teacher and the lucky beginning glimmering brightly within the word "no."

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Author

Adam Elenbaas is a professional astrologer and the founder of the Nightlight Astrology School. Adam holds an MA and MFA in English and Creative Writing and is one of the founding writers at RealitySandwich. To learn more about Adam, click here.